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Under shutdown, a complicated picture emerges for contractor employees

With the start of the government's first shutdown since 1996, every federal
employee who's not granted a specific exception is being placed on unpaid furlough
starting today, for a total of about one million workers. But the picture's a lot
murkier for federal contract employees. Most of them will continue to do work for
agencies during a shutdown, even if it's not clear when their companies will be
paid nor when the government employees with whom they share office space will
return to work.

Trade associations who represent government contracting companies have been
telling their members for the past several days that they need to stay in close
contact with government contracting officers and project managers on each of the
programs they're involved in to determine whether work will go on during a
shutdown, since the impact will vary dramatically case-by-case.

In the case of contract employees, the question is not so much about whether
they're essential to the protection of life and property — the biggest
criteria used for most federal employees in furlough decisions — but rather,
how and when the money that funds their contracts was obligated by the government.
Since the shutdown is hitting at the beginning of a new fiscal year, it's
reasonable to expect that many, if not most, contract employees will actually
continue working during a shutdown, depending on how long it lasts.

"All of the ones working on contracts that were obligated with money before the
lapse would be able to continue if supervision [by government employees] was
available," said Undersecretary of Defense Robert Hale, the department's
comptroller. "I think in the early stages of a lapse, that would be the majority
of our contractors because most are going to be working on contracts, just almost
by definition. If the lapse continued, that number would fall."

Under guidance the Office of Management and Budget issued last week,
contractors can continue to perform if their work is already fully funded, even
without supervision by government employees, as long as that supervision isn't
critical to the contract's performance during a shutdown.

Alan Chvotkin, the executive vice president and legal counsel at the Professional
Services Council, a group which represents government service contractors, said he
did not expect a lack of government supervision to interfere with many contracts.

"I think that universe is pretty small," he said. "Most of the work should be done
pursuant to a clear statement of work where government officials aren't directly
supervising contractor employees."

But there are other potential wrinkles to consider.

"We have a significant portion of the contractor workforce that performs their
work at government facilities. So if they're denied access to those facilities
because that facility isn't open at all or there's just a skeleton crew there,
that would be a broader effect on the contractor workforce. Companies would have
to either find alternative work sites for those employees, or even if those
contracts were fully-funded, those employees could still be at risk."

During a shutdown, agencies are generally prohibited by the Antideficiency Act
from signing any new contracts or doing anything else to obligate government
funds, with a handful of narrow exceptions laid out in federal law, as interpreted
by OMB.

For example, if the government can articulate a concrete case that not signing or
renewing a contract would cause an imminent threat to life or property, it can go
ahead. And under an obscure Civil War-era law known as the Food and Forage Act,
the Defense Department can invoke special authority to procure urgent supplies for
military operations.

Apart from the Antideficiency Act, agencies are free to sign brand new
contracts, as long as they're paid for with under the relatively rare categories
of appropriations that cover multiple years or no specific year at all, since
they're not affected by the fact that no 2014 appropriations bills have been
approved.

But that assumes that agencies have the acquisition and contract administration
personnel available to handle the transactions. And industry groups say those
federal employees are going to be extremely hard to find at their desks during a
shutdown.

"You won't have the government partners on the other side who we normally interact
with every day. A lot of that is truly important and it will hinder work no
matter how you look at it," said Marion Blakey, the chief executive officer of the
Aerospace Industries Association. "If you're in industry, it's possible to
continue the work if the funds are still available. But when you need to have
affirmation, engagement, ideas, all of those kinds of things you share with
federal partners, obviously there's no one there on the other end of the phone."